The story behind Harvest Hub Walton
Reconnecting local food
Food should be simple. A farmer grows it. A family eats it. Somewhere along the way that got complicated, and this is our attempt to make it straightforward again in Walton County.
Over time the food system has become complicated, distant and inefficient. Much of what sits on a grocery shelf has travelled hundreds or thousands of miles to get there. Along the way freshness is lost, costs rise, and good food is thrown away in fields, warehouses, lorries, shops and homes.
30 to 40 percentof the food supply in the United States is lost or wasted — the FDA and USDA’s joint estimate of food loss and waste in the United States.
And yet most communities are surrounded by farmers, ranchers, growers, beekeepers, bakers and food artisans making excellent food a few miles away.
The problem is not a lack of food. It is a lack of connection.
A digital food ecosystem
One marketplace, many producers
Farmers, ranchers, growers, beekeepers, bakers and food artisans in one place. Each producer has a profile in the farm directory saying what they grow or make, where they are and how to reach them. Online ordering from each producer is coming soon; it is not taking orders yet.
Instead of hunting across scattered websites, social media, roadside signs and weekend markets, a family finds local food in one place. Food travels a shorter distance, producers build a direct relationship with the people eating what they grow, and a household gets easier access to it.
Built for local producers
A range of local food businesses use Harvest Hub Walton to reach customers without losing what makes them local. Each one can tell their own story, show their own products, and deal with their customers directly.
- Farmers
- Ranchers
- Beekeepers
- Bakers
- Growers
- Market gardeners
- Food artisans
- Local food businesses
This is not really an online shop. It is a connection point between the people who grow food here and the people who eat it here.
A shorter, smarter supply chain
When food is grown, made and sold closer to home
Fresher food, fewer miles
Food picked close to where it is eaten spends its shelf life on a table rather than in a lorry.
Less waste in transit
Every handover between field and plate is a chance for good food to be lost. Shorter chains have fewer of them.
More dollars stay local
Money spent with a grower down the road is spent again in the same community, rather than leaving it.
Stronger community resilience
A county that can feed some of itself is less exposed when something far away goes wrong.
Powered by local producers
Local food should be easy to find, easy to sell and easy to support.
- A farmer should not have to become a technology company to sell online.
- A family should not have to search endlessly to find fresh food nearby.
- A community should not have to depend entirely on food grown thousands of miles away.
Where local food comes together
Food should not feel distant.
It should feel connected.
Harvest Hub Walton is the plumbing for local food in Walton County — connecting the people who grow, raise, bake and harvest with the families who want to buy from them.